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原文轉載Taipei Times報導
Pipe dreams also come true
A former businessman who hand-crafts collectors' pipes is making a name for himself
By David Momphard
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Sep 29, 2005,Page 13
A Pipe begins life as a block of wood and is etched with Kuan Chien-chung's imprimatur when finished.
PHOTOS: DAVID MOMPHARD, TAIPEI TIMES
Kuan Chien-chung (管建忠) used to be a successful contractor and real estate developer. But five years ago he left the business and sold his own house to finance what could be best described as a pipe dream, were it not for the fact that Kuan is already making it come true.
Kuan is, by his own reckoning, the only
professional maker of tobacco pipes in Taiwan in the past 300 years and one of a handful of pipe makers in Asia.
"There are two artisans in Japan," says Kuan, whose family name means pipe, "but I'm the only pipe artist in Taiwan. The history of pipe makers is all in Europe and the West -- pipe smoking has traditionally been a Western habit -- but regardless if they're European or Asian, pipe smokers make up their own country."
Kuan is largely self-taught. He graduated with an understanding of woodworking and several of the machines the craft calls for, but they were skills that served him more as a contractor than as an artisan. His expertise on many of the lathes and specialized drills he now uses came from fumbling his way around the equipment, gradually developing not only an understanding of the tools' limitations, but a feel for the materials used in pipe making.
Brier wood is his primary material, which friends help him procure on trips to Europe, but he's also discovered the wood of the Chinese Pistachios tree to be suitable for pipes due to its extreme hardness and ability to withstand high temperatures.
His pipe stems (like those of European pipe makers) are cut from a large slab of acrylic resin, then hand-fashioned. The rings are cut from various kinds of antler -- usually deer -- and paired with rings wrought from 1,000-year-old woods found here in Taiwan.
From a block of wood to the finished product, one of Kuan's pipes can take nearly a month to produce. He toils in his workshop from late afternoon until the next morning and sleeps, he says, once every two days.
Kuan breathes life into each pipe long before its eventual owner draws smoke from it. Though he works with a few basic designs, each piece is unique. The pieces of which he's proudest are named and displayed like photos of an extended family. And like family members, they have their own story.
Xuandan (懸膽) is the pride of Kuan's collection. The name literally means "hanging guts," but more poetically implies unresolved courage. It's a knot of black lacquered brier that dangles from an acrylic stem hewn as rough as the brier itself. Between them is a ring of white deer antler that binds the pieces together aesthetically as much as it does literally.
"Taiwanese love democracy, but Chinese live under communist rule," Kuan said. "The bowl of this pipe is comfortable and it feels strong, just like democracy. But, in fact, it hangs precariously from the stem and could break if you're not careful. It reminds us that some things are more fragile than they seem."
Another of Kuan's pipes is even more politically incendiary. Named Lady Liberty's Torch (自由女伸的火炬), it curls up from the smoker's mouth like the outstretched arm of its namesake statue. The shape of the bowl has the same silhouette as the torch she holds. Kaun made it after the US went to war against Iraq and he became troubled that the US would invade a country under the auspices of making it free while risking Taiwan's freedom by placating the neighboring giant that threatens it, China.
Like politics, culture is never far from Kuan's mind. It has shaped him as a person and now, he says, shapes the pipes he makes. He imbues each design with a sense of place and history and hopes that collectors from around the world will eventually see his pieces as unique to Taiwan.
Each pipe is etched with the date it was competed and Kuan's imprimatur that the pipe was made with his own hands. It was once suggested to him that his pipes might be more marketable abroad if he wrote the English word "handmade" on them. It was an idea he scoffed at.
"I'm Chinese. This is Taiwan," he said. "Why would I write English on them? I'm not making souvenirs!"
One of Kuan's pipes can cost anywhere from NT$10,000 to NT$50,000, if he's willing to sell it all. The pieces that are most special to him, like Xuandan, aren't for sale. Instead, Kuan says he would rather give the pipe to a fellow pipe maker from overseas who felt as strongly about it as he does. It would be a way of sharing his passion for the art with the rest of the world. And that, he said, is what is most important to him now.
"There are few pipe lovers in Taiwan," he said. "I want pipe lovers around the world to see my art appreciate it and know where it came from."
Kuan's workshop is located in Kaohsiung's Pier 2 Art District, at No. 1, Tayung Rd., Yencheng District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. His works can also be seen online at http://kuang-pipe.myweb.hinet.net/.
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发表于 2006-1-30 00:54:51
楼主
发表于 2006-1-30 02:13:16
发表于 2006-4-10 09:58:09